Duck Rabbit Brewery

On our way back from the Outer Banks, we decided to take a small detour to visit one of Sal's favorite NC breweries, The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery. Sal had some sort of divine inspiration on the way up to Kitty Hawk, and decided to see if Farmville, where Duck-Rabbit is brewed, was anywhere near our travelling path. He checked out their website, and lo and behold - it was an easy detour on our way back to Wilmington. Filled with anticipation of a brewery tour and stocking up on cases of beer, we headed back home with our sights set on Farmville.

Driving into Farmville was a little like entering the town where I grew up, but actually slightly more run down. There was at least one stop light, which is a big deal for a small town, but other than that, we didn't see a whole lot that inspired us to hang around. We followed the directions I wrote down from Google Maps, but even I started to wonder if I had missed something somewhere. We turned right onto an apparently dead end road near an industrial site - nope; I was right. We pulled up in front of 4519 West Pine Street and started laughing. To say that the building was unassuming would be an understatement. Not exactly what we expected, but we decided to give it a go anyway.

So glad we did. After wandering around the outside of the building, we finally decided to try the brown door in the front. We pushed it open and yelled hello (we know from experience to loudly introduce your presence in small towns or sketchy residences in case the owner is a trigger happy gun owner). We didn't hear anything, so we followed the sound of voices and made our way through the office into what turned out to be the huge brewing center/warehouse of The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery.

There we discovered Paul and Ryan, the two men behind Duck-Rabbit, hard at work creating an experimental brew. We apologized for barging in, but they were completely welcoming, even though they were obviously in the middle of some labor-intensive beer making. They invited us to look around until they were finished, and gave me permission to take some photos. When they were done, Paul took the time to tell me a little bit about Duck-Rabbit and what they do. Here's what I learned:

Paul Philippon, the founder, was working on a Ph.D in Philosophy at the University of Michigan when he started doing some home brewing. Seeing that the job prospects kind of suck in the world of Philosophy, he decided to start his own brewery and produced the first Duck-Rabbit beer in August of 2004. He chose Farmville for it's inexpensive real estate and the possibility to expand if needed. His partner in crime, Ryan (on the left in the photo), got a job simply by calling him up and asking if Paul needed help. He did. Duck-Rabbit now distributes to four states, having just added Georgia this week. They produce four standard brews: Milk Stout (YUM!), Brown Ale, Amber Ale (Sal's current fave), and a Porter, plus seasonal a variety of seasonal offerings.

The brewing set up was pretty cool, with giant drums holding from one to three batches of beer. One batch of 520 gallons produces about 270 cases in 2 weeks. That seems like a lot of beer, and must be a ton of work for two guys, but it really isn't that much as compared to say, Miller Brewing Co. that produces something like 3.1 million cases per year. Needless to say, Duck-Rabbit kicks the behind of Miller, taste wise.

If you want to pick up some Duck-Rabbit beer for yourself, don't plan on getting it at the brewery; they don't sell it there, much to our disappointment. You can, however, pick it up in Wilmington at Tidal Creek, as well as a bunch of other places locally and all over the state.

Many thanks to Paul and Ryan for their hospitality, and for taking the time to teach us about brewing. Next time we drink a Duck-Rabbit beer out of our new pint glass, we'll be able to picture exactly where, and by whom it was created. Mmmmm. Beer.